This is part two of video recording your performances and practices. I mentioned B-roll, so I thought it might be good to have a post specifically about B-roll and how to effectively use it. What is B-roll A-roll is the main video, the interview, the main performance, whatever the main purpose of your video is for. B-roll is the extra footage added to help tell and accentuate the story. For example, you could be shooting a promotional video to show to potential program direc

Video Using Your Phone If you have ever been in a videography class or even watched video training on Youtube then you’ve probably heard the old adage “the best camera is the one that’s with you”. In today’s world of smartphones, that adage is more real than it has ever been. Mobile phone cameras have gotten progressively better over time and as they’ve become more reliable, they have become the ultimate tools for recording videos on the go. Most new devices full HD, and with

Let Your Creativity Flow I am a big proponent for teams to come up with their own concepts, scripts, and programs for two reasons. The first is the financial factor involved. It is so easy to spend a fortune to get permission to use other people’s material. The second is because is gets the creative juices of the group to flowing and helps pull the team together when they are racking their brains to come up with ideas and creating the script around their characters as opposed

Get Your Name Out There Marketing is often confused with sales. Though there is a clear connection between the two, marketing is the actual act of drawing attention to one’s self or one’s product. Marketing is and will be a continually ongoing process for your puppet team. How you present yourself is marketing, how you look at events is marketing, how you project yourself on the phone to potential venue directors is marketing. Every team member should be required to always pr

The Kit “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.” In a perfect world, nothing ever goes wrong, the mics never go dead mid performance, the props never break, the cds never get scratched, etc. but in the real world, as the saying goes, “what can go wrong will go wrong” so prepare for it. Back Up Everything Everyone knows that CDs get scratched, misplaced, and cracked. I have seen a computer literally shatter a disk in the disk drive. So the first thing that you want to have in

These are the things that will make you exude professionalism to the people in charge of the venue you will be performing at as well as the audience. Promptness “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” - William Shakespeare Being prompt goes hand-in-hand with accountability. Being reliable is important to the team, to the leadership of the team, and to those that the team will be serving. As a leader It is extremely important if you are on the leadership of your

What is Ventriloquism? Ventriloquism is a finely crafted art that has been mastered by a select few. The techniques of distorting one’s voice to make it seem as though it is coming from another source; in this case a puppet. Like magic, these techniques were guarded and passed down throughout the centuries. It has been used as a form of entertainment for years, and has its origins dating back to as early as the sixth century, back when many thought it to be a form of witchcra

Make It Original, Make It Yours Developing Set puppet characters can be a fun way to get and keep team members involved. For them to know that the character they do is their character and no one else can do it gives them a sense of pride and responsibility to the team. I always suggest that every team member create a character; whether they use it or not. This will really come in handy when the team does return engagements and uses a set character because audiences will know

Gestures Less than 20 percent of communication is done with words. Body language plays an important role in how we naturally communicate. The same holds true for puppets when they are communicating. Some puppets, such as vent puppets and animatronics are designed to have multiple functioning parts for the purpose of gesturing, but most of my training primarily works on the premise that the puppeteer will be using a foam style puppet. Unless you spend for the extra quality or

You Thought You Learned It All? You are probably asking why this is popping up now and why I didn’t add it to the earlier post on Puppetry Basics or; the reason is because if you master the basics, you have the foundation for starting a good puppet team. Plus, if you haven’t mastered the basics, this portion will only confuse the puppeteer. Start with cooking Raman and then move up to General Tso’s. Back to Basics Not really, this is going to show you some advanced modificati